Posted by Joan Wrabetz September 14, 2016

I have run the continuous integration demo so many times in the last couple of weeks that I am starting to dream about continuous integration! So, I thought it would be good to share the wealth!

Continuous integration (CI) is the DevOps practice of running a set of regression tests automatically frequently during the development process – typically every time that new code is committed. One of the most popular CI tool is Jenkins. Jenkins allows users to describe actions that they want to be taken automatically whenever an event happens – like a commit of new code.

The only problem is that these automated tests would usually run in a test lab where the configuration of the environment would often be designed to look closer to the production environment than a typical development environment. So, the challenge is: How to also automate the infrastructure configuration that tests should run in and trigger that configuration along with the tests as part of a continuous integration process that runs every time new code is committed.

This is where Cloud Sandboxes come into the picture. A cloud Sandbox allows the creation of a configuration that replicates the production environment – from the network to the virtual environment to apps and even public cloud interfaces. This configuration can be set up automatically and on-demand. Quali’s CloudShell product is a cloud sandbox that can be created via our RESTful APIs. This allows sandboxes to be integrated with continuous integration tools like Jenkins and Travis so that a sandbox is triggered first and then the tests are trigger to run inside of the sandbox.

If you'd like to download the Jenkins plug-in, it's available on the Quali community: